With all the news these days of about encryption on the BlackBerry solution there is a great amount of misunderstood reporting in the media on just what is at stake between RIM and governments of the world. I'm not going to pretend that this article will be the ultimate encryption thesis it's my hope to explain things plainly and clearly.

As global terrorism rages, governments are trying to keep up with the perpetrators and the BlackBerry has become the symbol of all that is secure. Many government agencies themselves use BlackBerry devices for their security, so it's understandable that they would be concerned with encrypted communications of terrorist BlackBerry devices. Various countries have been in the news lately demanding that RIM give them the keys to read all the BlackBerry traffic within their countries. Many have put down deadlines if RIM does not comply they will close down all BlackBerry traffic inside that country. That potentially wouldn't be a problem is these demand were being made by Madagascar but the countries are India and United Arab Emirates.

This situation has come up in the past and the reaction from the media or the man on the street is always the same. "I thought BlackBerry was secure? If RIM has the key to give to that country will they give it every country?" I'm not a spokesperson for Research in Motion so I can't answer on behalf of Mike & Jim - but I say the easy way out is to just say YES. I've been selling the BlackBerry professionally in the corporate space since 1999 and the BIS and Web Client product have never been positioned as a secure communication. If I send an email from my @carrier.blackberry.net account to my wife's Gmail account the message is a wide open communication over the net.

As for PIN to PIN, although the it's been widely assumed that PIN to PIN is encrypted that is only partially true. As I covered in a previous article PIN messaging uses a common encryption key shared by all BlackBerry devices. My impressions of the stories in the press, is that RIM is negotiating giving all the encryption keys to government's who blackmail them - and this is simply not the case. What's at stake here is BIS email, PIN to PIN, BIS browsing & BlackBerry Messenger traffic. All of this data is over the public network using the generic encryption key shared by all BlackBerry devices, NOT the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This is something RIM can't give to anyone who asks for the key because RIM does not have the keys to BES encryption.

For those of you joining the game in progress, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is a server that resides behind your companies firewall and is a link between your corporate mail server and the corporate BlackBerry devices. When a corporate BlackBerry device is first provisioned on the BES a unique key using AES 256-bit encryption is generated with random bits of data. If this is total techo-weenie speak, if the key generated was 10 characters long a P4 1.6 GHz with 512 MB of RAM would take 2,304 years to brute force.

RIM doesn't have this key?

No they don't. The key is never revealed to RIM at any point of the message flow. The end user of the BlackBerry doesn't know they key, it's generated randomly by your BlackBerry device and is store on your BlackBerry and the BES. My boss and I are both on the same BES but have unique encryption keys. If a government wants to know what messages flow to and from corporate BlackBerry devices attached to a BES, they will need to show up and seize the company's mail server that is the only location where the unencrypted messages can be found. The mail server is the weak link if it resides in a country whose government wants the data.

Sample Scenario - How to Create a Secure BlackBerry Environment

If you're Col. Hannibal Smith and wanted a secure link between you and your A-Team you need a BES.

Install a Microsoft Small Business Server and BES Express on a laptop

Have a programming master to create a script that runs the mailbox management tools every 60 minutes to wipe each users inbox/sent/deleted items

Force a password lock on all your BlackBerry devices through IT policies

Use a dynamic DNS IP-update client

Move the laptop from location to location frequently

In this situation all communications will be completely secure between BlackBerry devices attached to the BES and Col. Decker will not have the ability to see your conversations with BA, Face or Murdock.

Your statement - " If a government wants to know what messages flow to and from corporate BlackBerry devices attached to a BES, they will need to show up and seize the company's mail server that is the only location where the unencrypted messages can be found." is correct but if the Govt. wants to know about the messages flowing between terrorists, how can they do that? As they don't have the access to their mail servers. So they need to have some type of access between device and BES Server.Isn't it?

"if the Govt. wants to know about the messages flowing between terrorists"
Terrorists are unlikely to use a BES in the first place (I'm guessing, since to do so would require infrastructure that can be traced), and BIS traffic is ALL essentially NOT secure. SO, if a terrorist IS using BES somehow for secure communication, the "government" in question simply needs to seize the particular server to which that BlackBerry device is associated securely.

Beyond that, using any form of communication on a BlackBerry is no more or less "secure" than that same form of communication on any Android or Apple or Nokia or Palm or whatever.

Once the BlackBerry device and BES securely exchanged the encryption key, all traffic is encrypted. The weak point however seems to be the initial exchange of the encryption key. Is it possible to initiate a "man in the middle" attack against the initial key exchange?

BIS does by default not support the S/MIME support package for email but I think it does support PIN messages (you can S/MIME encrypt PIN messages I believe).

The UAE is the last place that should be worried about terrorism, its just a bulls**t excuse to cover the fact that the only reason they want access to these messages etc, is so they can monitor what everyone is up to. As a large demographic of people in the UAE have BlackBerry's, they see it fit that too many people are talking, and they can't read it, and kick-out/punish the people that talk about things they deem inappropriate. Someone's going to have to give in, hopefully the UAE does, just like the Facebook ban, and the Alcohol ban..

I don't disagree with your second paragraph opening statement: "As global terrorism rages, ...", but please also state on the record "... and as individual freedoms expand and communication technologies undermine oppressive regimes' iron-fisted control over the populace..." or "... and as leaders of theocratic regimes lose control over the hearts and minds of the masses" etc.

This is probably 30% about counter-terrorism, and 69% percent about making sure the populace live under constant 'big-brother' style paranoia about their benign actions in their personal lives being scrutinized by "morality police" that will break down their doors and arrest them for "immorality", regardless of whether or not all parties involved are consenting adults.

The other 1 percent is just some government twats trying to prove that they're being "proactive" about stuff... not actually trying to improve the lives of their citizens, but rather just showing off to score political points for their personal aggrandizement.

Probably the most paranoid country right now over security issues is the US of A , and probably with some justification. I am an Indian and I know the security issues facing my country . So if I have to give up my Blackberry connections ( I have three blackberry accounts with different carriers ) it's really not a big deal. I was in Mumbai when the terrorist strikes took place and really only those who have faces such incidents first hand can appreciate such concerns.

But surely the idea of terrorism is too terrorise and change our day to day leaving isn't that what they've already done? Our lives are chamging they have won, they have achieved what they wanted. There's no winning against these silly and horrible selfish people who wrap the kindness of man to spread there illogical hate. If you really want to tackle the problem start with the bottom and social problems and immagration.

Maybe this is too simple of a solution, but when all of this 'government wanting access' stuff started, i thought, what if the government set up their own BES and had every blackbery that was on their network go through that? I guess the problem would be people who smuggle underground blackberries (which i find funny AND ridiculous to say ... as if it actually WAS crack) to use? And if that were the case, wouldn't there be a way for the network to detect which phones are part of the BES or not? They'd have to keep some sort of list of the phone that were on there, and then when an IMEI logs onto the network that isn't on that list, they know.

hay i love the pin and bbm too.. but come on people come look at the gaping hole in Manhattan where many of my friends and coworkers were taken from us im all about security when needed but when that same security is being used by murders and drug dealers .... well when your kids are taken from you and you cry how did the police and government not know i hope your satisfied with the answer " they were using blackberry ".

oh and for the a-team breakdown way to go let them as@$^%es work it out for them selves don't spell it out for them right now every cyber fruit cakes running around best buy trying to buy a cheep laptop.

that's just me i say give them access if the president wants to see pics of my ass i send to friends when i get drunk so be it, if they see corporate maleficent and signs of embezzlement let them secrets are only secret because you mostly scared your going to get caught doing something that will get you in trouble.

I for one have no issue with some government agency trawling my person emails as many that come to my hotmail account only wish to enlarge my genitalia... If they viewed my blackberry messenger transcripts they would only find topic-less conversations of no real interest to anybody. Now if Mrs Jones from next door could do they same it would be a different matter as i can be personally related to by that person and i would feel my privacy was invaded.

My point mainly is.... i would much prefer a system government agency's could use to monitor encrypted devices for the purpose of terrorism prevention than loose one life in an attacks like 9/11..

Personal freedom and privacy is a wonderful myth...and i wonder what the many 1000's who have died as a result of some right to privacy red tape think about it now.

But, with respect, here is where you are wrong. The REAL issue is that RIM "cooperates" (I will explain) with certain Western Govts for years to allow them access to both BIS AND BES comms (of course, with warrants or national security letters). Comms between the US, UK, Canada (and, indeed all of Western Europe) and select other places have been accessible to US or other Governments for a while.

How so ? Goes back to the word "cooperate". While it is true that each device has its own 256K encryption key, the encrypted message has to leave the closed BES system and, eventually, enter the public domain (e.g., ATT, Verizon, Orange). In order to send the message to the right recipients AND insure accuracy, the networks can (and DO) use a backdoor to the encryption algorithm.

Don't believe me ? Fine. I used to work programs like these. Also ask yourself -- why isnt the FBI and GCHQ asking for the same information that the UAE and India (and others) are asking for ? That's right -- they already have it.

> the encrypted message has to leave the closed BES system and, eventually, enter the public domain (e.g., ATT, Verizon, Orange).
This statement is not accurate. The entire time the message is in-flight, it stays encrypted. It is only decrypted when it hits the BES. Once decrypted, it doesn't re-enter the wireless realm. It may go out onto the Big I, but if it is a message for a user on the same mail system as the one attached to the BES, it never hits the Internet, or the air, unencrypted.

Without first-hand knowledge, any discussion about what decryption capabilities the government has is pure speculation.

CrackBerry is in no way Affiliated with BlackBerry. We take pride in our unbiased content, however do occasionally receive free products from vendors that we review or discuss. For more info click here.